1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hinge, and more particularly to a tilting hinge suitably us able for supporting a personal computer monitor, television display unit and the like, which are of a stationary type.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, the liquid crystal display (LCD) has been used widely as a personal computer monitor, television display unit and the like. The display unit is thinner than the conventional cathode ray tube (CRT). Normally, the stationary type display unit is supported on a stand. To freely change the angle of the display unit in relation to the stand, the display unit is installed to the stand with a tilting hinge so that it can be tilted up and down, rotatable and horizontally oscillated to a desired position.
As a means for tilting up and down the display unit, tilting hinges have been proposed which employ a torsion spring having a torque with which the weight of the display unit can be supported and also a friction mechanism provided in addition to the torsion spring.
Many tilting hinges use only a friction mechanism for rotating the display unit but only a few use a means for oscillating the display unit horizontally.
In the well-known means for tilting up and down the display unit in relation to the stand, the moment generated when the display unit is tilted changes depicting a trigonometric function curve while the torque of the torsion spring changes linearly. Thus, the force of operation required for changing the angle of the display unit varies from one to another tilted angle of the display unit. Further, with an increased weight of the display unit and for easier operation of the tilting hinge for setting the display unit at a desired angle, the number of turns of the torsion spring should be increased, which will result in a large tilting hinge.
With the conventional means for rotating the display unit, the latter is rotated steplessly, so that the user will not feel no detent when the display unit is stopped and the weight and long-term use of the display unit will cause the friction mechanism to be abraded. As a result, the performance of the titling hinge will be lower so that the display unit cannot be stably stopped from rotating.
Therefore, the present invention has an object to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art by providing a tilting hinge adapted such that the force of operation required for tilting up and down a display unit will not vary from one to another tilted angle of the display unit.
The present invention has another object to provide a tilting hinge with which the user can rotate the display unit with a detent and which can be used with no performance degradation even after it has been used for a long term and permits to oscillate the display unit horizontally.
The present invention has a still another object to provide a tilting hinge which can attain the above objects in combination.
The above object can be attained by providing a tilting hinge including a stand member, a fixing member installed to the top of the stand member with a pivot pin to be frictionally pivotable horizontally, a support member installed to either side plate of the fixing member with a hinge pin to be frictionally pivotable vertically, an actuator pin installed to either side plate of the support member and penetrated through an arcuate elongated hole formed in both the side plates of the fixing member, a slider provided in contact with the actuator pin to be slidable vertically between both the side plates of the fixing member, a compression spring provided between the slider and a bottom plate of the fixing member, and a rotating plate installed to the front side of the support member with a pivot pin to be frictionally pivotable vertically and to which the display unit is to be fixed.
In the above tilting hinge according to the present invention, means for frictionally pivoting the support member vertically in relation to the fixing member is provided with the hinge pin being installed to the fixing member and the support member being installed to the hinge pin to be tiltable up and down, a first friction washer is provided between one side of the support member and a large-diameter portion of the hinge pin with the hinge pin being inserted through the center of the first friction washer, a second friction washer is provided on the other side of the support member with the hinge pin being inserted through the center of the second friction washer, and a spring washer and pressing washer are provided adjacent to the second friction washer with the hinge pin being inserted through the centers of the spring and pressing washers, the pressing washer on the hinge pin being calked.
In the above tilting hinge according to the present invention, a cam is formed at a portion of the slider at which the slider is in contact with the actuator pin.
Further in the above tilting hinge according to the present invention, a detent stopping mean s is provided to stop the rotating plate with a detent.
Moreover, in the above tilting hinge according to the present invention, the detent stopping means is an elongated guide hole formed in the rotating plate and through which a stopper pin projected from the support member and a catch plate is provided at each of the beginning and trailing ends of the elongated guide hole to catch the stopper pin.
These objects and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.